"Mancala, huh?" Total said, lying down next to them. "Next time we're in a store, let's lift some cards. We could play Texas hold 'em. I would kick your butts." His small, shiny nose twitched as he watched them play.
"That's a good idea," said Nudge, as Angel distributed her pile, though she had no idea how Total would hold the cards. Unless he had opposable thumbs hidden under his paw fur. Which, come to think of it, he very well might. Checking behind her, she saw she had enough room to let her wings stretch out a bit, so she extended them, enjoying the feeling. "Ahh."
"I want wings," Total said, not for the first time. "If I could fly, no one would have to carry me. If they could graft wings onto those big lunking Erasers, they could definitely patch a pair onto me."
"It would hurt, Total," said Angel, studying the mancala game.
"Do you think the Erasers are really gone?" Nudge asked them. In the background, she heard Iggy saying, "No, see, you need the spark to ignite it. You need the flint to make the spark, see?"
Gazzy murmured, "Yeah, but what about the bleach?" and then their voices faded again.
Nudge sighed. This was the kind of thing she wished Max or Fang were here to handle.
"Hey, guys?" Iggy called. Nudge looked up.
"How about a little test flight?" he said. "A little wheeling-around like the hawks showed us. Okay?"
"Yeah, okay," said Angel. She smiled at Nudge. "You were about to win anyway."
Nudge grinned back. "I know." Standing up, she dusted off her jeans and pulled her wings in to walk to the end of the tiny canyon.
One by one, the bird kids leaped off the ledge, falling downward for a few moments before hauling out their wings, strong, light, and catching the wind in their feathers. Nudge loved this feeling, the sensation of power and freedom, the knowledge that she could rise up from the ground like an angel. Any time she wanted to.
She smiled over at Angel, who turned to smile back at her. Then Angel's eyes went wide, and her face took on a look of horror. Nudge whirled as a large shadow blotted the light from the flock.
A wide, thick swarm of Erasers was flying right toward them. They were back!
14
"Seriously, we have to talk," said Fang.
I sighed, looking up at the sky. "It's just like dolphins chirping," I said regretfully, talking out loud to myself. "I hear sounds, but none of them make sense."
I put my hands on my hips and surveyed the scene below us. "No water source. Let's go."
Without waiting for him, I launched myself off the low cliff, moving my wings powerfully, heading toward the sun. We'd stopped twice already, and neither place had all the stuff we needed: close-by food source, water, safety.
This was completely pointless, as opposed to my original plan, which was completely pointed.
Without turning my head, I glanced out of the corners of my eyes to see Fang's sleek wings behind me. He was acting weird. I didn't think Fang had been replaced by a clone the way I had at one point. Yes, folks, in my life, that's actually a legitimate concern. Take a moment and count your blessings.
Maybe he really does just want to talk, said the Voice.
Oh, yeah, 'cause Fang is all about the wordy sharing of feelings, I thought back. Something's up, something he's not telling me.
And I would get it out of him at the next place we stopped. This was one mystery I could solve, even if I had to beat it out of him.
15
"I knew it was too good to be true," Gazzy yelled. "The Erasers' all being dead!"
"I didn't feel them coming," Angel said, confused.
Nudge's heart was pounding, the blood rushing in her ears. These Erasers moved more in sync with one another than the others they had encountered, but still awkwardly, choppily. Nudge shot a last look at Angel, then soared upward just as the Erasers hit them.
Focus. That's what Max always said. Focus.
Concentrating, Nudge dropped down on an Eraser, smashing her sneakered feet against its head. Then, whirling, she cracked the hard edge of her hand against its windpipe. The Eraser made a weird noise and started to lose altitude.
"Nudge! Watch it!" Gazzy screamed.
Wham! An iron-hard punch to the ribs knocked Nudge's breath away, and she sucked in air soundlessly, trying not to panic. Instinctively she remembered to keep moving her wings, staying aloft long enough to regain her breath.
But there was no time-the Eraser came at her again, fist cocked back to punch. At the last second, Nudge dropped suddenly, so that its big, hairy arm swished through empty air.
"Take that, sucker!" she wheezed.
Surging upward, Nudge kicked it, aiming for its stomach but actually hitting somewhat lower. The Eraser doubled over without a sound, and Nudge clasped her hands together and brought them down on the back of its neck as hard as she could.
"Ow!" Angel's cry of pain made Nudge whirl, and she saw the smallest member of the flock being held by one arm as she ineffectually tried to kick her captor.
Nudge rushed over but was beaten there by Iggy, following the sound of Angel's voice. Together they pummeled the Eraser, and Iggy chopped down on the arm holding Angel. With a strange roar, the Eraser turned and pulled back its arm, and then made an odd strangled sound.
Looking down, Nudge saw Total chomping on the Eraser's ankle, shaking his head even as he dangled there, high above the ground-with no wings.
"Get him," she whispered to Angel, who nodded and quickly dropped ten feet. The Eraser shook its leg, but Total closed his eyes and clamped down harder, growling fiercely. Judging from the other muffled sounds, he was also swearing a blue streak.
"Yo!" yelled the Gasman, catching everyone's attention. "Fire in the hole!"
16
Nudge's side was killing her, and she still felt low on oxygen. But experience had taught that when Gazzy or Iggy said something like that, you ducked and covered as fast as you could. So she folded in her wings, immediately dropping like a stone.
A good thirty feet down, she unfurled her wings and shot to one side, just as Gazzy pushed an Eraser away from him with a muttered "Oof!" Angel had grabbed Total, Iggy had grabbed Angel, and they were hauling upward like pocket rockets.
There were five Erasers left-Nudge guessed they'd disposed of about half of them. Her ribs felt broken, she wished Max and Fang were here, and she didn't know wh-
"Gross!" Nudge shrieked, as bits of Eraser hit her. "Gross, gross, gross! Oh, God, Gazzy! Gross!"
Nudge worked her wings, moving up toward Iggy. She passed one main chunk of an Eraser dropping past her, and saw two others that had been wounded-one's wing was broken almost off, and the other appeared to be missing a leg.
But it was weird, the way-
"You have terminated me," one of them said in a strange, flat voice. "But I am one of many."
"Robots!" Iggy breathed, taking Total from Angel.
"One of many, one of many, one of many," the robot Eraser was saying. Now Nudge saw the red light in its eyes, saw how they were fading and winking out.
"Good!" spat the Gasman, kicking it hard. "Because we like to blow stuff up, blow stuff up, blow stuff up!"
Then all the remaining Erasers seemed to fold in on themselves, as if programmed, and dropped out of sight. A long, long time later, the flock saw the small poofs of dust and dirt showing that they'd finally hit the canyon floor.
"Well, that was different," Iggy said.
"And so gross!" Nudge said, still brushing Eraser shards off herself.
17
"What are you thinking about?" Fang's quiet voice barely carried to me over the crackling of the fire.
I'm thinking about how much easier it was when everyone just did what I told them, I thought sourly. "Wondering if the kids are okay," I said.